Sunday, October 26, 2014

A peek into our weekend

This was our first weekend without soccer in . . .forever. So, we took advantage & have had such a relaxing few days. The boys had practice on Friday, but no games.

Yesterday I went for a short run, and got my hair cut. It's been just over a year (remember the mullet?), so I've been too scared to get a trim. I'm happy to report that I got a perfectly normal hair cut. I went to an expensive salon, and it was $100. Much more than I'd regularly spend, but I needed to ease back into hair cuts, after the last disaster. Plus, I've clearly saved way more than $100 by not getting my hair cut over the last year. ;-)

It's been a very expensive month. Here's a look at some of our expenses in October. . . much of this is pre-booking, for things like winter activities for the kids, Christmas, etc.

Tickets for my parents to come visit in November. We are celebrating our anniversary, and offered to buy my dad a ticket to come up & watch the boys. The price of his ticket will be roughly offset by not using our nanny over the long weekend (had we not opted to go out of town). We ended up buying my mom a ticket as well, as the ticket prices were the lowest I've ever seen - $150/each from Portland to San Jose. Total (with tax) - $312.

Anniversary trip. We decided to go for it. We have to go out of town this weekend for a wedding anyway, and desperately needed a little time away. We will leave on Saturday, come back on Monday. We're going to Napa. :-) SO excited! Total deposit for the hotel - $478.

Boys indoor soccer league - $500 ($250/each)

Boys indoor soccer shoes - $75 (for both)

Boys basketball sign ups - $460 ($230/each)

Christmas gifts for the kids (almost done with our shopping) - $370

Phew. A crazy month of expenses. And, we're heading to Napa in two weeks, and Hawaii in four weeks. Just a little bit spoiled over the next few months. The Hawaii trip will be amazing, but won't have any time alone, so I'm looking for a little adult time with M. :-)

I crunched all of the October budget numbers, have been watching lots of magic tricks (my youngest has finally opened a magic set that friend got him a few months back), we used gift cards for pizza last night, and for lunch today. I went for a hike with a friend, and S went to a sleepover, so is currently very tired today. I think they stayed up late - maybe 11:00 or so? He's definitely feeling the effect.

On the work side, I'm still working 70+ hours/week, which is no good. I'm hoping for a large bonus in December, but we shall see. I have some rough ideas of what we might do with it, but nothing planned until it's actually real & in our accounts. We'll most likely apply it to our HELOC on our Seattle house. Paying off that loan is a big stretch goal of ours.

And now I need to plan our menu for the week. I have a late work dinner tomorrow, but here's what I'm thinking:

Sunday - Chicken taquitos

Monday - leftover pizza, for everyone but me

Tuesday - Italian suasage hoagies

Wednesday - home late from a work Halloween party, so leftover pasta

Thursday - Leftover hoagies

Friday - chicken risotto

Saturday - soccer games, so something easy. Maybe leftovers

Sunday - I'd love to roast a chicken. I've never done it before, but maybe I should look up some recipes.

With that, I'm off. I hope you are all having a fantastic October! I've been in survival mode over the last few months, thanks to work. I'm trying hard to break out & get a bit of enjoyment out of each day, no matter what the schedule says.

Today it's beautiful & 70 outside. What's the weather like where you are?